Halbert Passes on Council Re-election Bid To Go For City Court Clerk

By Bill Dries

Memphis City Council member Wanda Halbert will not seek re-election in this year's city elections and will instead run for City Court Clerk.

Halbert plans to pull a petition Monday, April 20, for the challenge of incumbent clerk Thomas Long.

Halbert is the fifth incumbent on the 13-member council to pass on a re-election bid in the October elections.

The other four are Harold Collins and Jim Strickland, who are running for mayor in October, as well as Shea Flinn and council chairman Myron Lowery, the longest serving member of the council.

Halbert, a former Memphis City Schools board member who was elected to the council in 2007, ran for Criminal Court Clerk in 2014 as the Democratic nominee, losing to Republican Richard DeSaussure in the August general election.

Council member Edmund Ford Jr. became the first candidate to file Friday, April 17, for a spot on the October ballot for city of Memphis elections.

Ford filed for re-election to the District 6 council seat on the opening day of the candidate filing period.

The first day for contenders to pull qualifying petitions saw 34 petitions issued by the Shelby County Election commission including the one Ford filed later in the day with at least 25 signatures from voters in the district as well as a $100 filing fee paid in cash.

A total of nine prospective contenders pulled petitions in the race for Memphis Mayor. That included already declared candidates Justin Ford, the chairman of the Shelby County Commission and cousin of Edmund Ford Jr. and Memphis City Council member Jim Strickland.

It also included former Shelby County Schools board member Kenneth Whalum Jr. who also pulled petitions for City Council District 5 and Super District 9 Position 2.

Whalum’s most recent run for office was his bid for the Democratic nomination for Shelby County Mayor last year in which Whalum finished second in the three-way race, between nominee Deidre Malone and county commissioner Steve Mulroy.